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History on the 14th of April

History
Date Text
14 Apr 1973 RELIGIOUS According to Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots committed mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls were breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion. (Two women and five children survived by hiding in a cistern, and were later released unharmed by the Romans.)
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14 Apr 1796 RELIGIOUS Death of Joseph Swain, 35, author of the hymn, "O Thou in Whose Presence My Soul Takes Delight."
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14 Apr 1906 RELIGIOUS The Azusa Street Revival -- proto-mission out of which the modern Pentecostal movement spread world-wide -- officially began when the services led by black evangelist William J. Seymour, 36, moved into the building at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
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14 Apr 1913 WW2 Vice Admiral Shinrokuro Nishi was named the commanding officer of the Mako naval port at Pescadores islands, Taiwan. 
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14 Apr 1920 WW2 USS R-5 completed the US Navy winter exercises in the Gulf of Mexico. 
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14 Apr 1931 WW2 The Spanish Republic was proclaimed and was recognized by western nations; King Alfonso XIII of Spain fled into exile. 
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14 Apr 1936 WW2 A S-43 aircraft, piloted by Boris Sergievsky and carrying a 500-kilogram payload, set an altitude record for amphibious aircraft at 27,950 feet above Stamford, Connecticut, United States. 
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14 Apr 1938 WW2 Werner Mölders arrived in Cádiz, Spain by sea. 
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14 Apr 1939 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in attempt to maintain peace, asking them to guarantee the borders of 31 countries for at least 10 years. 
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14 Apr 1940 WW2 German minesweeper M6 sank British Royal Navy submarine Tarpon. 
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14 Apr 1940 WW2 350 British Royal Marines landed at Namsos, Norway to prepare for the arrival of the 146th Territorial Brigade; these Marines were the first British forces to land in Norway. German paratroopers of the 7th Flieger Division were paradropped into Dombås, Norway; after heavy casualties incurred largely due to the fact that they landed right into Norwegian 11th Infantry Regiment's camp, they successfully damage the nearby railways and occupied farmhouses, thus able to hamper with Norwegian transportation efforts for several days. Out at sea, British submarine HMS Sterlet damaged the German gunnery training ship and minelayer Brummer in the Skagerrak between Norway and Sweden with torpedoes; Brummer would remain afloat until the next day. 
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14 Apr 1940 WW2 King Haakon of Norway appealed to his people to resist but the Germans warned that any civilians aiding the British will be rounded up and shot. 
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14 Apr 1940 RELIGIOUS English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink wrote in a letter: 'Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord.'
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 Corporal John Edmondson of 2/17th Battalion of Australian 9th Division led a bayonet charge at Tobruk, Libya despite being shot in the stomach and neck, later dying of these wounds. He would be awarded a Victoria Cross. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 The Greek Epirus Army continued to withdraw from Albania, and German 73rd Infantry Division attempted to block it at Kastoria Pass, resulting in heavy fighting. On the eastern coast of Greece, the German advance was halted at Platamon between Mount Olympus and the Aegean Sea. King Petar II of Yugoslavia fled to Athens, Greece as German troops advanced on his capital; in the evening, the Yugoslavian government asked General Ewald von Kleist of the German 1st Panzer Group for a ceasefire. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 King Farouk of Egypt invited Adolf Hitler for a discussion on Egyptian independence from the United Kingdom. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 British gunboat HMS Aphis bombarded Bardia, Libya, while gunboat HMS Gnat bombarded German troops at Sollum, Egypt. German aircraft damaged HMS Gnat, killing 1. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarine U-52 sank Belgian passenger ship Ville de Liège 400 miles southwest of Iceland at 0117 hours; 40 were killed, 12 survived. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 British Swordfish torpedo bombers of No. 815 Squadron based in Paramythia, Greece sank Italian steamers Luciano and Stampalia at the port of Vlorë, Albania overnight; 1 Swordfish aircraft was shot down, with 1 airman killed and 2 captured. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 At Tobruk, Libya, German infantry filled anti-tank ditches and cutting wires at the El Adem road starting at 0230 hours, with the work interrupted periodically by Allied fire. At 0520 hours, 36 tanks of German 5th Panzer Regiment moved through the gap created by the infantry, but were halted by British guns and dug-in Crusader tanks 2 miles beyond the line. In the air, British, German, and Italian fighters engaged in combat in the air while 40 German Stuka dive bombers attacked the Tobruk harbor. At 0730 hours, the Axis offensive was called back after losing 16 tanks and 400 men (150 killed, 250 captured). 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 The British cargo ship, Fort Stikine, carrying 1,400 tons of explosives and 124 gold bars worth £1 million, caught fire in Bombay harbour, India and exploded, showering the docks with blazing debris. The blast and tidal wave which followed sank four ships and damage a further eleven, one of which, a troopship, was hurled out of the water and onto the roof of a warehouse. Half an hour later, the wreck of the Fort Stikine was devastated by a second massive explosion which threw debris 3,000 feet into the air and over a square mile of the docks and city. The two explosions killed 231 and injured a further 476. The bodies of more than 500 dock workers and civilians were also recovered, another 1,000 people simply disappeared and 2,000 were hospitalised. Eleven ships were lost. In 1960 a dredger working in the harbour recovered a single gold bar. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 A US Marine Corps garrison designated Marine Detachment, 1st Defense Battalion, was established at Palmyra Atoll. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 The first major mass arrest of Jews in Paris, France took place. 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 Australian infantry outside Tobruk, Libya reported the sighting of a number of "long-barrelled guns on strange carriages". This was the first indication that the Germans were deploying the dreaded 88-mm anti-tank gun in the Western Desert (although on this occasion the guns were soon withdrawn when German infantry failed to create a gap). 
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14 Apr 1941 WW2 USS Gar was commissioned into service at New London, Connecticut, United States with Lieutenant D. McGregor in command. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 Pierre Laval was named Chief of Government with special powers in Vichy France. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 US Navy Admiral Nimitz ordered USS Yorktown to Tongatapu, Tonga in the South Pacific; she was to support the defense of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 Just after 0000 hours US destroyer USS Roper sank U-85 with 11 depth charges just off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States; Roper was the first American destroyer to sink a German submarine. German submarine U-203 sank British freighter Empire Thrush 10 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States at 1515 hours; all 55 aboard survived. German submarine U-66 sank Greek ship Korthion off Barbados at 1636 hours; 14 were killed, 9 survived. Off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States, U-571 sank US freighter Margaret at 2102 hours, killing the entire crew of 29. British sloop HMS Stork and corvette HMS Vetch sank German submarine U-252 with depth charges 650 miles west of Brest, France at 2230 hours, killing all 44 aboard. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 Hudson bombers of No. 139 Squadron RAF attacked the Japanese flying-boat base on the Andaman Islands. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 USS Wasp departed the Clyde Estuary, Scotland, United Kingdom with 52 Spitfire fighters of No. 601 and No. 603 Squadrons RAF on board for Malta; she was escorted by destroyers USS Lang and USS Madison. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 British submarine HMS Upholder became missing in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere between Italy and Libya; all 33 aboard were never seen again. She was either sunk by German aircraft or by Italian torpedo boat Pegaso. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 A German Fw 200 Condor aircraft located Allied convoy QP-10 at dawn; 20 Ju 88 aircraft attacked at 0600 hours, damaging the rudder of British freighter Harpalion (she would be scuttled shortly after) at the cost of 4 aircraft shot down. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 USS Skipjack departed Fremantle, Australia for her third war patrol. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 12 British DB-7 Boston bombers damaged the Mondeville power station in Calvados, France during a daylight raid. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 208 British bombers (142 Wellington, 34 Hampden, 20 Stirling, 8 Halifax, and 4 Manchester) attacked Dortmund, Germany, damaging 6 buildings and killing 4 civilians. 9 bombers were lost in this attack. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 Adolf Hitler ordered the German Luftwaffe to recommence air attacks on United Kingdom with an emphasis of bombing cities with no particular industrial value but of great beauty. The British soon called these raids "Baedeker" raids after the famous German 19th-century tourist guide. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 USS S-31 began her second war patrol off the Panama Canal Zone. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 US and Filipino prisoners of war began to arrive at Orani in Bataan, Philippine Islands from Balanga, where facilities were totally inadequate for the large numbers of prisoners that would ultimately arrive at this location; to combat the issue, the Japanese marched a group of prisoners to Lubao further north and were imprisoned in an abandoned warehouse (en route, many died from heat, starvation, dehydration, and murders by Japanese guards). To the south, Japanese artillery continued the bombardment of Corregidor island. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 The German bombing on Grimsby, England, United Kingdom that began before midnight on the previous date ended; it killed 13, injured 28, and destroyed a number of homes. 
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14 Apr 1942 WW2 In a speech at a meeting with Franklin Roosevelt's representatives in London, England, United Kingdom, General Alan Brooke on behalf of the Chiefs-of-Staff Committee insisted that it must be essential to hold the Japanese and to ensure that there should be no junction between them and the Germans that could gravely threaten Allied oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. 
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14 Apr 1942 RELIGIOUS Detroit radio priest, Father Charles E. Coughlin was censured for anti-Semitism. Coughlin's broadcasts had railed against "godless capitalists, the Jews, the Communists, international bankers and plutocrats."
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 US President Roosevelt's office turned down a request from US Jewish community leaders to meet with the president in preparation to the forthcoming conference in Bermuda regarding the situation of refugees in Europe. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili died in German captivity. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 Soviet 14th Army pushed back a German thrust southeast of Leningrad, Russia. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 The No. 3 Column of the Chindits crossed the Chindwin River in Burma and soon became the first column to return to India. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 23 Japanese dive bombers, 44 medium bombers, and 129 fighters attacked Milne Bay, Australian Papua; 44 Allied fighters rose in response. In the air, 1 Australian P-40 fighter was shot down and another was damaged, and additional Australian P-38 aircraft was destroyed on landing. Three Allied ships were damaged. For the Japanese 5 G4M bombers, 3 D3A dive bombers, and 1 Zero fighter were lost in combat. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 US Navy Fleet Radio Unit Pacific Fleet decoded a intercepted Japanese Navy message, which allowed the US to learn that Yamamoto was planning on an inspection of three front-line bases near Bougainville Island. The decrypted message was immediately forwarded to Admiral Chester Nimitz at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 The remnants of "Tobruch" Battalion of the "San Marco" naval infantry regiment of Italian Navy began to arrive in Italy from Tunisia. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 Irako transited the Bungo Strait between Shikoku and Kyushu, Japan with minelayer Yurijima in escort. 
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14 Apr 1943 WW2 The Soviet State Defense Committee divided the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs Main Directorate for State Security (GUGB/NKVD) into three organizations: People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD; under Lavrentiy Beria; political repression, slave labor camps, prisoners of war camps, and NKVD troops), People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB; under Vsevolod Merkulov; foreign intelligence and domestic counterintelligence), and State Directorate of Counter-Intelligence (GUKR-NKO or SMERSH; later assigned under Viktor Abakumov; counterintelligence). 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 Red Army captured Tarnopol, Ukraine. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 The first transports of Greek Jews to Auschwitz Concentration Camp departed from Athens, Greece. On the same date, a transport of 500 prisoners was sent from Stutthof Concentration Camp to Neuengamme Concentration Camp. In France, mass arrests of Jews were ordered; to provide incentive for civilians to aid this effort, payments were offered to those who led authorities to Jews in hiding. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 SS Brigadier General Veesenmayer reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Sztojay promised that by the end of Apr 1944 at least 50,000 Hungarian Jews fit for work would be made available to the Germans, beginning with 5,000 Jews effective immediately and 5,000 more every three to four days until the number of 50,000 has been reached. An additional 50,000 Jews were to be made available in May, and the number of Jewish labor draftees inside Hungary is to be raised to 100,000 to 150,000. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 A major Chinese offensive was launched across the Burmese border against the Japanese. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 Destroyer USS Mansfield (DD-728) was commissioned with Commander Robert E. Brady, Jr. in command. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 673rd Bomb Squadron (flying A-20 aircraft) of USAAF 417th Bomb Group was transferred from Dobodura Airfield to Saidor Airfield, Australian Papua. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 In Poland, the first Allied aerial photographs were taken of Auschwitz I camp, the town of Auschwitz (known as Oswiecim in Polish), the I. G. Farben factories, and the Auschwitz III camp complex (also known as Monowitz); this came 10 days after the first Allied reconnaissance flight over the camp. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 Allied convoy RA-58 arrived at Loch Ewe, Scotland, United Kingdom. 
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14 Apr 1944 WW2 Mosquito aircraft of No. 627 Squadron of No. 8 (PFF) Group RAF arrived at RAF Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Tirante sank Japanese cargo ship Juzan Maru and her two escort vessels. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 George Patton was promoted to the permanent rank of general. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 The Ruhr Pocket was cut in two near Hagen, Germany. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Former Chancellor Franz von Papen and three German generals were captured in a raid by American gliderborne troops led by Lieutenant James Watson. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 French troops began their final assault on Bordeaux, France. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Canadian forces assumed military control in the Netherlands, minding those German forces still holed up in Atlantikwall fortifications. Arnhem and Zwolle were captured by the Canadians on this date. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 British Second Army reached Bremen, Germany. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Japanese special attack aircraft damaged a battleship and two destroyers off Okinawa, Japan. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Charr began laying naval mines off Pulo Island, Vietnam. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Seven G4M bombers approached American ships off Okinawa, but all were shot down before they were able to launch their Ohka payloads. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in North West Europe, announced that Berlin, Germany was no longer a military objective. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 The Soviet Union's top propagandist, Ilya Ehrenburg, was formally reprimanded, in an unprecedented editorial in the Soviet military newspaper Red Star, by his chief, Alexandrov, for broadcasting and distributing leaflets that encourage Red Army soldiers to commit atrocities against German civilians. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Sennet attacked a Japanese patrol boat south of Japan; the single torpedo missed. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Gabilan sank a Japanese freighters in the South China Sea in the morning, hitting her with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. In the evening, she sank another freight in the same area, hitting her with all 4 torpedoes fired. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Anglo-Indian troops captured Taungdwingyi, Burma. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 On this day and the next, 423 Danish Jews were transferred from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia back to their home country via trucks hired by the Swedish Red Cross. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Lorraine began a week-long bombardment of German positions in the Gironde estuary in western France between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 In Germany, US Third Army captured Bayreuth and Gera. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 As Allied troops advanced, Heinrich Himmler ordered all prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany be exterminated. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 US 102nd Infantry Division captured Gardelegen, Germany. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 The underground aircraft factory at Tarthun south of Magdeburg, Germany, which produced He 162 jet fighters among other weapons, was discovered by Private 1st ClassJames Prenger and Warrant Officer Joseph Crocker. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Captain Clayton Kelly Gross led 8 P-51 fighters on a fighter sweep over the Bad Hersfeld-Mühlhausen-Weimar region in central Germany. The Americans shot down the Me 262 jet fighter flown by Kurt Lobgesong of German Jagdgeschwader 7 wing; Lobgesong would survive the engagement. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 Jürgen Stroop met with Heinrich Himmler in Himmler's private train near Prenzlau, Germany, proclaiming that he would lead Werwolf resistance groups with total loyalty after the end of the war. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Tunny arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her eighth war patrol. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 British advances in northern Italy were held up at Bastia and the Fossa Marina canal, frustrated by the German 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment. On the same day, after a heavy aerial and artillery bombardment, US IV Corps began to attack on the western end of the German line. German 29th Panzergrenadier Division arrived in the Reno River area as reinforcement; earlier in the day, Adolf Hitler had rejected a request to withdraw German forces north of the Po River. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 I-400 departed Kure, Japan for Dalian, China, disguised as a frigate complete with dummy naval guns and machine guns. She was tasked with bringing back fuel from the Dalian storage tanks. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Spot sank two Japanese trawlers with her deck gun in the East China Sea. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Sunfish fired three torpedoes at a Japanese ship off Japan; all three torpedoes missed. 
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14 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Hoe entered Mare Island Navy Yard, California, United States for overhaul. 
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